Sharman Networks

[eclectica]

http://www.sharmannetworks.com/design/corporate/images/logo_sharman.gif

Sharman Networks (http://www.sharmannetworks.com) is a profit oriented company which makes the most popular p2p application, Kazaa. They are also involved in some other business projects and spinoffs. They have no ethics or morals in their behavior, and have shown a willingness to sue anyone in order to further their business interests. They have sued the filesharing portal Slyck (http://www.slyck.com) and anything related to or linking to Kazaa Lite (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=119). Kazaa Lite is a version of the Kazaa program which does not have spyware or adware, and so they don't make any money off of it. The only driving force behind the company is profit and greed. I wouldn't be surprised if the mysterious ES5 (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89) program is actually affiliated with them and is intended to be a revenue generating service that offers among other things, child pornography without fear of legal troubles for its users.

Their location is elusive, without having any court or jurisdiction to hold them accountable. Some of the names associated with the company are: Niklas Zennstrom & Janus Friis (Kazaa founders), Nikki Hemming (CEO), Alan Morris (Executive Vice President), Derek Broes (Executive Vice President Altnet) Kevin Bermeister (head of Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Altnet), Phil Morle (technical director), Roderick Dorman (chief litigation counsel), and Philip Corwin (lobbyist).

Sharman Networks is the bane of peer-to-peer filesharing. While we rally behind them when they take on the RIAA, it is only for their self-interest that they have been fighting against the RIAA. With their millions of dollars it is an outrage that they have provided no support whatsoever for the many p2p users who were sued by the RIAA. These p2p users earn them revenue by being subjected to their adware and spyware, and in return they have only been rewarded with the impotence and silence of Sharman Neworks.

Because Sharman Networks makes money itself, with their commercialized p2p (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84), it puts people in an ethical bind because the money is going to someone besides the musicians. This gives credence to the arguments (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125) that p2p filesharing is equivalent to stealing. If p2p filesharing is free, then you can argue that people are freely sharing what they like with others. But once someone profits from p2p, then it does indeed become immoral. Sharman Networks and its commercialism is a poisonous, corrupted path that has everything to do with greedy profit and nothing to do with a love of the music.

[Criminal_Sniper]

hey lets sue kazaa
if they won on logical and technical shit then so can we
we could sue them for charging for a music service and secretly not paying any royalties (no real secret though) that could pose a risk to us because the only reason we would have changed would be to not get in trouble
then use the money to buy edonkey servers lol (or soulseek lol)

[eclectica]

I don't understand why people backed down when sued by Sharman Networks. It has already been determined by the courts that they have no responsibility or control over Kazaa. Therefore, how could they sue websites which have Kazaa Lite? No one can sue on behalf of Kazaa according to the courts. It wouldn't hold up in court, but most people back down when they're handed lawsuits, so their tactics work.

[asdf]

Hey, Phil Morle is the inventor of shaman networks. Kazaa is great but has died along with napster. these new versions of bolth are bs. Luckily there is still klite kpp version of kazaa which is the best i think. although Phil is bringing lawsuits to everyone who is hosting the download of this program, so more people will buy his sh*t so he can feed his greedy fat as*s.




I dont want to get sued so i should say that im not going to send it to you.

but if anyone needs Kazaa K++, email me.

Neotek at cox dot net <------my email.

[eclectica]

Today in Australia, Music Industry Privacy Investigations (MIPI) of the Australian Recording Industry Association raided the offices of Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment. They also raided some universities and ISPs. They were given legal power to do so from the British Anton Piller order (http://www.thailawforum.com/articles/ipvichai2.html), which is a law that gives power to copyright owners to search the premises of suspected copyright infringers.

In the United States the fourth amendment of the Constitution would make such a law unconstitutional. I am surprised that there are so few protections in Australia. I wonder why Sharman Networks chose to set up their offices in Australia anyway. I would have thought that they would want to set up in a place that does not have strong copyright laws.

In any case, I am guessing that the raid is just the first step with MIPI gathering or searching for evidence of copyright infringement, and the next step would be for them to sue Sharman Networks based on the evidence they gather.

The news of this raid has caused a mixed reaction in the p2p community. There are those who don't like record industry raids, and others who don't like Sharman Networks.

I view this raid in pragmatic terms. While I am concerned with the lack of civil liberties in Australia and the power given to copyright owners, I despise Sharman Networks, and I think anything which brings them down is good. I do not believe that an enemy of my enemy is my friend. Seeing Sharman Networks and the record companies fighting each other is a great thing. Let us hope that they fight each other to the death.

[Criminal_Sniper]

dont worry guys the more they fight the more we go underground
in the us or australia we dont care
kazaa is going to die so what?
and when they cant find us?
they wont be able to use these silly little laws any more

[Criminal_Sniper]

hahaha they can come
ill be waiting
in another country lol

[eclectica]

Here's a good article on Sharman Networks and some details of the actual raid in Australia:
http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/412A621F4556A65FCA256E77001DD222

[slx]

e, here's something to put in your stash

www.takebackp2p.tk/

[eclectica]

The reason Sharman Networks is fighting against scam sites is because it loses potential money off of them and not because it cares about the well-being of its users.